Editor's Blog: Talking politics at the breakfast table
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Are our local candidates
for the Maidstone and Weald constituency getting along too well?
That was the question I pondered while sitting at a debate hosted
by the Mid Kent branch of the Federation of Small Businesses hosted
by the Russell Hotel at the fiendishly early hour of 7am today.
Unlike some
constituencies which are still choosing their would-be MPs
(nominations don’t close until next Tuesday), we’ve known ours for
some time. Helen Grant, for example, has been the Tories’ PPC for a
full 28 months – about half of a parliamentary term. And maybe the
opponents themselves have got to know each other a little too well
because there was a distinct lack of ‘edge’ about the discussion
this morning. In fact there was a marked air of ‘niceness’ about
proceedings. The closest they got to crossing swords seemed to be a
brief episode of point-scoring about local roots with the Lib Dems’
Peter Carroll a little scornful of Ms Grant comment to the
audience: “I live in Marden – I don’t know if you know it?” Mr
Carroll’s proud boast that his local connections ‘went back to
1992’ was made to sound as if it were generations. The Green’s
Stuart Jeffery trumped them all, saying: “I went to school here.”
Our Tory hopeful tried to score back with her Lib Dem
opponent saying “well you are older than me Peter”. Actually,
they’re the same age.
Are local connections
important? Well local knowledge is, and we’ve been testing our
candidates with a quickfire local quiz which will appear in the KM
before the election, so you can judge. I have to say that one or
two aren’t exactly, shall we say, enthusiastic.
Going back to the
courtesies shown today, I suppose this might be a reaction to a
perceived mood among the public for an end to knockabout politics
and the tribal traditions but people still want to see passion and
conviction. That was noticeably missing this morning, in a
generally interesting but at times underwhelming debate.
Unfortunately, there was
no one there to defend the government’s record, which didn’t help
stir things up, with Labour’s Rav Seeruthun having ’prior
engagements’. At 7am on a Tuesday morning, Rav? Busy man. But the
main two contenders were in attendance and between Helen Grant and
Peter Carroll you couldn’t have more starkly contrasting opponents
– so at least on a personal level there’s choice for the voters of
Maidstone. Helen Grant is a likeable ‘new Tory’ coming into
politics on a common sense platform with lots of domestic
Thatcher-like anecdotes, although the constant references to her
humble beginnings are starting to sound like that scene from Monty
Python in which dinner-suited Northerners try to out-do each other
in how tough they had it. Peter Carroll, on the other hand, has the
air an old-style political bruiser of the Prescott mould who wears
the scars of previous battles. But doesn’t he like to talk about
them? Yes, we know you were involved in the Ghurka campaign. Helen
is always immaculately dressed while you get the impression that a
tie rests uncomfortably around the neck of haulier Peter. There
will only ever be one Ann Widdecombe, but her departure has at
least given us a very interesting contest in the County Town.
Tuesday, April 13 2010
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